001 - What Makes it Hard to Go Home ?

"Alright Ingvild, are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready!" Ingvild replies eagerly while nodding with anticipation.

"Alright, first thing first, you need to find your Sacred Gear within your body. After that, focus on channeling its power throughout your entire body."

"A Sacred Gear is connected to your soul, so if you strengthen your soul, your Sacred Gear gets stronger too. Like all things your Sacred Gear has a limit, but with Balance Breaker you can bypass that limit. But that's for later."

Ingvild then raises her hand toward me. "Do all Sacred Gears have the same way to become stronger?"

"No. Different Sacred Gears have different ways to get stronger. Yours is a passive Sacred Gear that doesn't have a form, so the easiest way for you is to make your soul stronger."

While I explaining some things to Ingvild, there are Djeeta, Lyria, and Ophis watching nearby.

"It's really weird, huh? Every time we see Rei actually teaching someone." Djeeta says to Lyria beside her.

"Yeah... You can't really see Rei as a teacher..."

"I think... He's going to be good... as a teacher." Ophis suddenly says to them while continuing to watch Rei and Ingvild.

"Huh?" Djeeta and Lyria are surprised when they hear Ophis speaking because they've never heard her speak since they met her.

Meanwhile back with Ingvild and Rei, Ingvild is closing her eyes to try to sense the Sacred Gear within her body.

Ingvild easily senses something shining within her, and tries to draw that light towards her. Soon her body is enveloped in a lavender light.

"Oh, that was pretty easy," I murmur after seeing that Ingvild has succeeded.

I thought Ingvild would need more time before she could use her power like Issei in canon, but it seems I can't really compare their talents like that.

Feeling her body filled with new power, Ingvild opens her eyes to look at me.

The moment she opens her eyes, I can see immediately that her eyes are glowing in the same color as the light enveloping her body. "Lavender color"

"Good job, Ingvild. Look at you now, you're even more beautiful with that glow," I say to her with a smile.

"Wha-? Beautiful!?" Ingvild immediately blushes after hearing my compliment, and the lavender color that enveloping her disappeared.

She quickly covers her cheeks with her hands, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Well... it looks like you need to learn how to properly channel your power," I say to her.

A moment later after Ingvild's embarrassment subsided, her body is once again enveloped in the lavender light as she looked at me with a pout. "It's your fault for saying that so suddenly."

"Well...." I wanted to tell her I didn't expect her to lose control of her power just because she got embarrassed.

But from my experience with my other fiancés, I know better than to do that because it would only backfire on me.

"Alright then, let's go to the next phase: trying to control water. As Leviathan and with your sacred gear, you should be able to control water easily," I said trying to changing the topic and turned around to the grass behind us.

I then tapped my foot on the grass beneath me, and a large crater immediately appeared before us then it's filling with blue water emerging from its base.

Soon the crater was filled with water forming a sizeable lake in front of us. "There we go. Now you just need to try using your power as Leviathan first."

Ingvild started walking towards the lake while focusing intently on the water attempting to move it.

However, after some time I couldn't see the water moving at all despite Ingvild's efforts.

I could see she was intensely focused on moving the water, and I could even see the mana flowing from her body towards the lake.

After a while, Ingvild lost her focus and the light surrounding her disappeared. "Hahhh...hahhh...hahhh...it's not working..." Ingvild panted while speaking to me.

"That's weird... I can see you using your mana as Leviathan properly, but the water isn't responding to you at all..." I say while staring at the lake I had created.

"But what is happening? I know I am really focusing on making the water respond to me..." Ingvild looks confused and a little panicked as she says this to me.

"Calm down Ingvild. Let me think for a moment," I try to reassure Ingvild, who is standing in front of me with a panicked expression.

"But I really want to be useful to you! I don't want to be behind everyone..." Ingvild murmurs while staring at her feet.

I can hear everything with my sharp hearing so I gently lift her chin so she will look at my face. "Listen, Ingvild you are already useful to me by helping me cook every day and becoming Sturm's friend. It's actually really rare to see Sturm enjoying a conversation with anyone except me and Drang, so you don't need to worry about anything."

"But..." Ingvild still looks unsatisfied. I then decided to stroke her cheek with my finger.

I can feel her smooth skin under my finger as I stroke her cheek. "Well, if you're still not satisfied with all that, I'll do something for you."

I release her chin and sit on the grass beside the lake, patting the grass next to me to signal Ingvild to sit beside me.

Seeing that, Ingvild immediately sits next to me and dips her feet into the lake in front of us. "Let me check your mana structure," I say to her.

"Eh?"

Without further ado, I focus my eyes to see the mana inside her body.

"Hmm, you have a lot of mana inside you for someone who has been sleeping for hundreds of years," I tell her.

And what I say is true because I can see that her mana is even more abundant than Rias's when I first met her.

Her mana level is equivalent to a Satan-Class Devil or higher, and with her Sacred Gear, it can increase even more.

But the problem is that her mana is almost inactive. Maybe because she is only a half-devil, but I can see that her Leviathan mana isn't reacting at all.

So she is only using her mana as a human, not as a devil which explains why the lake water didn't respond to her.

"I see, that's the problem," I said while blinking my eyes to stop seeing Ingvild's mana.

"Did you find it!? What's the problem?" Ingvild leans her face toward me after hearing my words.

I then explain to her why she can't use her powers perfectly like a typical Leviathan.

"Because I'm only half-devil, I can't use my power properly?" Ingvild looks disappointed when she hears that.

She thinks that with her powers as a Leviathan and her highly compatible Sacred Gear, she can become much stronger.

But who would have thought that her Sacred Gear and half-human nature would be her obstacles?

"Well, you don't need to be that sad. If you want, I can just change your race to Primal Beast," I casually say to her.

"Primal Beast!? You mean the ones from your world?!" Ingvild looks shocked after hearing my suggestion.

"Yep. Primal Beasts have their own core that I make, so you don't need to worry about running out of power ever again, and you can get much stronger. But the problem is, if you're not prepared to take in that much power, you're gonna lose control."

"Are you going to turn her into a Primal Beast, Rei?" I hear Lyria's voice, making me turn towards her.

I can see Djeeta, Lyria, and Ophis walking toward us. "But is she gonna be fine? Because, you know, changing race is kind of a difficult choice," Djeeta says while glancing to Ingvild who is looking at them.

The three of them keep walking until they are beside me, looking at the lake in front of us. "Hmm~ this lake will be a great place for us to swim," Djeeta says.

"Definitely not for now because she needs to learn more about controlling her power like Rias," I say, then turn back to Ingvild.

"For now, I'm going to activate your mana, Ingvild. Come with me," I say as I stand up and walk a bit away from Djeeta and the others.

Once we're far enough, I turn to face Ingvild who following me. "This is probably going to be a little ticklish," I say to her.

"Yes, it's fine. I'm ready."

I then use my right hand to lift her shirt so her stomach is exposed. "Wha!? What are you doing, Rei?" Ingvild looks shocked when I do that.

"Shh, be silent..." I say to her because I can't mess up when trying to tamper with someone else's mana.

I then touch her stomach with other hand. "Cold..." Ingvild mutters when she feels it.

From my back, twelve black wings emerge indicating that I'm using Lucillus's power. I can't really use Lucifer because she's a devil.

The twelve wings start to glow with a dark light, and I immediately feel my body filled with power from my wings.

With that power, I channel it into my hand and send it into Ingvild's body. "Hahaha, this is ticklish!" Ingvild starts to laugh uncontrollably.

Seeing that she's distracted by the tickling, I immediately send all of it into her body.

"Aghhh!!?" I hear Ingvild's pained voice, and she starts stepping back while clutching her stomach.

From her stomach I can see the residual dark aura, which then starts to enter her body. "Ughh, you said it would only be ticklish!"

"Well... it's usually ticklish when I do that to other Primal Beasts," I say while scratching my cheek.

"Ugh, it really hurts..." Ingvild says still clutching her stomach.

Now I feel really bad for her, but I know it's necessary and she'll only feel the pain for a short time anyway.

"Huh? It's all gone?" Ingvild stops holding her stomach and stands up while examining her body.

Ingvild then starts jumping and moving around as if testing something. "My body feels really light!"

But as she does that, I can't help but notice her really big breasts like Rias bouncing all over the place...

"Well, now we can try again," I say to her, then turn towards the lake.